BASTARD NATION: SHAMELESS ADOPTEES

Founders of Bastard Nation, the newest and most outrageous adoptee group to surface in cyberspace - and soon in the flesh at adoption conferences - are proof that sealed records do not protect us from knowing why most of us became adoptees. Our other selves are bastards and Bastard Nation is leading the way toward reclaiming the "B" word until it loses its power to stigmatize. "Founding Foundling" Marley Greiner wants to open adoption records "by any means necessary" to change the "secrecy = shame context of the closed adoption system". In addition to the serious side of the political movement, Bastard Nationals are "having fun with our social status and heritage".

A trip to Bastard Nation's website reveals this humor. The "Adoptee Excuse of the Day Calendar" is a participatory compilation of excuses for not telling adoptees their birth names. This list was created to "assist" recordkeepers at hospitals in their task of explaining their inability to give original names to adopted adults who ask for them. When completed the calendar will provide 365 ways records can be accidentally destroyed or lost ("the information is the property of another country's previous government, and was destroyed in the coup-d'etat") or ways the question can be evaded: "(your records) will take this agency three years to compile." Some excuses on this list are funny because they are not evasive: "the information you have requested may be revealed to faceless bureaucrats, but not to you." There may still be time to send in excuses to add to the list.

Pseudonyms add to the festivities. The following information about Bastard Nation was provided by "Sub-Commandante for Public Relations" Damsel Plum.

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What is Bastard Nation?

Bastard Nation was born in early 1996 on the Internet Usenet newsgroup, alt.adoption (a.a.). Our beloved Founder Marley Greiner coined the term "Bastard Nation" and started signing her posts with it. Several of us followed suit, playfully assigning ourselves titles as the topic required (see the Founding Foundlings list on the website for examples). In June I came up with the idea to create a Bastard Nation website. I collected material from people on a.a and on June 19, 1996 we announced the Bastard Nation website to the Internet community. Since then we have had over 1,000 hits a month to the main page alone. In late September we moved the site to a custom domain: http://www.bastards.org. Our message is getting out and our ranks are growing.

What is Bastard Nation's message exactly? We have been greatly misunderstood by those who would like to pigeonhole us into whatever enemy role suits their personal interests. We've been labeled anti-adoption, anti-birthmother, anti-reunion, whiners, professional victims - you name it. Not one of these accusations correctly describes us. As stated in our disclaimer on the Bastard Nation website's title page: "The only unifying concepts of BN are those of being for open records, search and reunion support, and freedom of expression." Otherwise, the opinions on adoption issues of our individual members vary greatly. In this way we are unlike any other adoption organization- we are truly a "big tent" without a whole truckload of associated "positions" on adoption and adoption reform. We have one big issue and all the other issues we deal with are directly born out of it: open records for adult adoptees.

Adoptee birth records are sealed because of an unspoken, unacknowledged attitude of SHAME towards adoption. I call this the "shame sham" behind sealed records. The justification we get for adult adoptees' birth records being sealed is: 1) They are sealed to protect the birthparent (unspoken assumption - from the SHAME of the unwanted birth coming back to haunt her) 2) They are sealed to protect the adoptee (unspoken assumption - from the SHAME of being reminded that one was born of an unwanted pregnancy), and 3) to protect the adoptive parents (from the SHAME of their own infertility). In reality there shouldn't be anything shameful about adoption. Sealed records preclude that possibility.

The media like to play up sensational and rare instances of lunatics trying to track down their birthchildren or birthparents, wreaking havoc on their lives. Thanks to this misrepresentative portrayal of adoption, the American public is kept in the dark about the real issue regarding sealed records for the millions of adoptees: civil rights. If you would like to learn more about Bastard Nation's stance on open records as a civil rights issue, you can contact our Attorney General Shea Grimm: sheag@oz.net.

Bastard Nation explodes the myth of shame by reclaiming the word "bastard" and all of society's myths and fears regarding adoption. We make fun of the unspoken shame, joke about illegitimacy, tell the untold tales of our sisters and brothers which the media have not been willing to tackle. We give adoptees a place to come and express themselves, share their experiences, read about others like (and unlike) themselves, find search and reunion support and learn how to fight for their rights as adult adoptees. I update the site each week and frequently add new features. We have a guest book which people can fill out and read others' contributions. There is much more we have in store for our organization but the website has definitely been a rallying point for drawing attention to our cause and helping us to move forward. It is a prime example of Internet grass-roots activism.

Bastard Nation will be holding its first conference the weekend of July 18-20, 1997 at the Howard Johnson's O'Hare International Hotel in Chicago. Those interested in more information can contact Damsel Plum at 454 Las Gallinas, Suite 199, San Rafael, CA 94903 or by fax: 415-704-3166 or email damzy@bastards.org.

- Damsel Plum for Bastard Nation

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From Bastard Nation's Mission Statement and Bylaws

Article II: Purpose:

Bastard Nation has as its primary goal the opening of all adoption records, uncensored and unaltered, to an adoptee upon request, at age of majority. We respect the diversity of opinion present in the adoption community among adoptees, which is why we advocate that each adoptee have the ability to choose whether he/she wishes to search or access his/her birth records. Bastard Nation asserts that it is the right of people everywhere to have their official original birth record unaltered and free from falsification, and that the adoptive status of any person should not prohibit them from exercising such a right. To that end, we have reclaimed the badge of bastardy as placed on us by those who would attempt to shame us for our parents' marital status at the time of our births. We see nothing shameful in being adopted, nor in being born out of wedlock, and thus we see no reason for adoption to continue to be veiled in secrecy through use of the sealed record system and the pejorative use of the term 'bastard'. Bastard Nation does not support mandated mutual consent registries or intermediary systems in place of fully open records, nor any other system that is less than access on demand to the adult adoptee, without compromise, and without qualification.

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Buttons saying "Some of my Best Friends are Bastards" and other pertinent statements are available from Damsel Plum by snailmail. Hint: Do not put the word "Bastard" on the envelope or the post office may return your letter to you.